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Studios decry cinemas’ ad-filled preshows as AMC warns of “25-30 extra minutes”: Here are the consequences for movie biz
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- Authors
- Anthony D'Alessandro
- Published
- Jul 4 2025
- Word count
- 1573 words
My local theaters have been running ads before the previews for a few years now. They're all local ads, so I actually don't mind them as much. Local ads are low-budget, tacky, goofy, and embarrassing. All of which is entertaining to me. But I start seeing garbage-ass ads for mega corps, I'll just show up 25-30 minutes late for the show.
The difference is the given time. Those pre-roll ads are usually before the given start time. The thing the article is about is seeing a ticket time of 7:00 and the movie actually starts at 7:30.
Yeah I know, I mean if this becomes a common occurrence, I'll simply start showing up late for movies. I don't really know how the theater could prevent that, or why they would. Me spending $20 on overpriced combos at the concession stand certainly makes them way more money than me watching a few ads does.
It already is a common occurrence. Most are already running non-trailer ads after the advertised showtime. Consider yourself lucky that your theater hasn't started yet!
Yup, I've seen this in Canada and the States, although it's primarily at its worst with big name cinema chains.
Theaters seem to do pretty consistent amounts of preroll. If you just time it a couple times you can get a decent idea of how late to get there.
Depends on if its a theater with reserved seats though (or I guess how popular the movie is)
Sure, but that doesn't seem anything new to me. I remember a decade ago running 20 minutes late for a movie and still getting there during the trailers.
I went to see F1 last night with my brother and his family. My niece was appalled at the amount of ads and trailers before a movie. They live overseas and usually watch movies on a US military base. There the trailers and ads run before the movie time. So when it says the movie time is at 8pm, it literally means the movie starts at 8pm.
I was shocked when I was visiting them and experienced that. Came a few minutes late to their theater expecting to dodge some trailers and the movie had already started!
I get that it's a business, but I don't care about that. I don't want to sit through 30 minute of ads and trailers or show up late and hope no one took my reserved seat. I love movies and the theater experience. But it's tedious to sit through so many trailers and ads
"Why don't people see movies anymore?!" exclaim the cineplex owners who are hell-bent on making the experience as complicated and painful as possible.
I thought the point about movie trailers being extremely important to be really salient. Frankly, I would never see a Mission Impossible movie period if i didn't get a taste of the stunts I'd be paying to see, and getting to see it in a trailer is the thing that makes going to a movie theater specifically; it's really not the same to see it at home because you cannot get the same sense of scale without the gigantic screen, so everything is worse if I don't get that. But at the same time this kind of thing is the reason why the few times I go out to see movies anymore I'm not rushing to get there before the given time. I'm not going to waste my time listening to people trying to tell me that I should drink coke, change my wireless carrier, or lick Nicole Kidman's shoes.
Especially when movies are already stretching to three hour runtimes! I'm an old man now; I need to pee!
The theater owners would cut the preshow down if studios gave them a bigger share of the ticket prices but the studios don’t wanna do that lol
If modern mega-corps have taught us anything, it's that they would take the larger share of ticket prices and keep the preshow as long as people are willing to stand.
This has always been the case in my area - decades ago when I would go to the movies regularly we would always go 20 minutes "late" or so to cut down on the number of trailers we had to watch. Is this becoming more widespread or are they just finally putting up a notice for it and it's a slow news day?
I remember some static local ads before the start time, then trailers for 20min, then the roller coaster/dancing concessions. It's much worse now. When I saw F1 last weekend it was 30 mins of mostly ads and maybe two trailers and a teaser, then we got the theater ad roller coaster thing. Not in blocks of ads then trailers, it was like commercial breaks in between your commercials (trailers). Let alone the Google AI ad that felt like a black mirror episode, but they were serious. Pile that on top of it being nearly $100 for two people with some snacks to see it in IMAX and it reminded me why I watch movies at home.
Wow, I thought I was being stingy when I backed out of paying €30 for two people (no snacks) - we decided we'd just stay home and catch it in a month or so with all the creature comforts that my sofa/lounge can afford.
If I can't block, skip, it pay to remove ads I will not use the service/event.
I already paid to watch the movie paying twice is bullshit.
I'm going to have to start seeking candy in the parking lot to even the score! Joking not joking.
I'll sit through trailers all day, but I hate the coke and car ads. The preshow is the absolute worst.
The biggest incentive to arriving early or on time was getting a good seat. Now that you can reserve the seat you want online, that's moot. I guess the second is having time to wait in line for snacks, but I tend to skip those.
I didn't mind trailers but other ads suck.
I wonder if seat reservations will be phased out to try and remove that consumer leverage?
I noticed this in the AMC app a couple of days ago. Decided to go to Alamo Drafthouse instead and timed their ads at 15 minutes. Given they were pretty cinephile focused I’d say it was reasonable. A friend saw a movie on the same day in a different theater and saw pharmaceutical ads.
When I went to the movies when I was younger, the ads were fairly predictable: there were miscellaneous commercials at the beginning, followed by trailers, followed by the actual movie. I remember timing it out and coming when the trailers started, since the other ads were basically things you'd see regularly on TV anyway.
When I went to see F1 and Mission Impossible this week, the commercials and trailers were interleaved, basically making that strategy moot, which was frustrating.
The only thing that really "saved" that was that we were in a "VIP" cinema where you could order food to your seat. You didn't really have to pay attention either way.
I long ago adopted a "no trailers" policy for myself which would have a side benefit here. No filmmaker (or any storyteller, really) envisions a narrative that you already know the plot of, and it can be distracting to be watching something and anticipating a scene from a trailer. Likewise, most trailers are made by third-party companies engaged by the marketing department, not extensions of the original creative idea, and those companies want to make the most engaging trailer, not one that respects spoilers.
I just got back from taking my kids to see Jurassic World at an AMC. I checked the time, for a 12:00 pm showtime, the Amblin logo popped up at 12:32.
I do theatres only once or twice a year. Honestly, if I hadn't read this headline before, I would have assumed it was normal. It's always seemed long to me, but I didn't really mind, honestly. I had already planned on turning my brain off for this movie, so I was in the right mindset to watch a lot of trailers for similar blockbusters. No straightforward commercials, but they did a long AMC self-promotional video that seemed new to us, different from the old Nicole Kidman one. And then they still played the Nicole Kidman thing after! It's still a crowd pleaser for its ridiculousness. And then another trailer! And then the movie.
Most people are scrolling on their phone until the movie begins. Do the ads even matter in that case? Yeah the time wastage sucks and but if the ads provide revenue to theaters and prevent them from completely dying I'm ok with them.
I went to the theater last week. I put down my phone for trailers that seemed interesting to me and whenever an ad came up I started scrolling Lemmy or Tildes.
For me, yes ads bother the crap out of me.
More importantly though, watching ads is a form of payment, and I already paid a lot to go to the cinema.